Debates and polls

When rain falls during a Grand Prix drivers find themselves robbed of their reference points. Their sensitivity to their car’s behaviour becomes even more important.

Patterns of braking, steering and accelerating have to be completely re-written – often from one lap to the next. To do that successfully they must rely on feel and raw skill. Whether their car is the fastest in the straight line or the most aerodynamically efficient is no longer as important as it once was.

Rain – the great leveller. So, which of today’s F1 drivers is the best on a wet track? Cast your vote below.

Here’s a look at the podiums in each of the rain-affected races that’s run during the brief lifetime of F1 Fanatic – and links to reports for each of those races:

How can you all rate Massa as a “Bad-wet-driver”?
No other driver on these standings has finished more races than him on the top three position.
On the other hand, be a so called “good-wet-driver” means nothing, there’s plenty of them that never made it to the tittle. And i’ve seen a bunch, as i am a F1 fan since Andretti/1978, that were water freak and are multiple tittle holders.

This is a very fickle and difficult subject to compare. A friend and myself were just doing this Monday. The problem is, no one is ever without mistakes. Hamilton has two non-points finishes in the wet and Alonso has Fuji. Hell, the problem works the other way too: Massa looked like God in Monaco this year and that scared the crap out of me into Silverstone.

The fact is this. That while wet F1 races put so much into the driver’s hands, it is hard for us not to love it. We all love it and it is a great equaliser. But in so many ways, there are untold and unseen settings that take the race out of the drivers hands. Aquaplaning. Missed lugnuts. Team errors. Someone running into the back of you in a SC queue. Anything and everything can ruin your great race.

To come up with the best wet weather racer in the sport is meaningless unless there is a CLEAR dominant force, the likes of which we have not seen in some years. We can have the great, the good, and the rest. Even that is muddled, but it’s the best we have.

Alonso has team errors at Budapest 2006, Shanghai 2006, Silverstone 2008.
Hamilton has a very bad race at Nurburgring 2007 (with steward assistance), and team errors/retirement at Shanghai 2007. He also had the weather go against him at Monza in 2008. That is another key factor that is simply not stated enough.

I don’t think my answer is avoiding the question. It’s far from definitive and to argue is purely subjective and will only lead to who you think is the better driver anyway.

I don’t see a single driver who is outright the best in all conditions of wet, there is no Senna, Bellof, Villeneuve amongst this group of drivers when it starts to drop lightly or heavily. Overall Alonso is the best, in extreme conditions I find it’s Vettel, on a drying track it’s Kimi, moderately wet is Hamilton. Having said that there are four other drivers I can think of who are as good as any of the others mentioned and they are Heidfeld, Barichello, Button and Sutil. Also Bourdais seems handy in the wet weather.